September 6 - Jane Addams is Born

On this day in Labor History the year was 1860.  That was the day that Jane Addams was born in Cedarville, Illinois.  Her family was wealthy and her father served as a state senator.  In 1881, Jane Adams visited London with her friend Ellen Gates Starr.  There the two women were inspired by Toynbee Hall, a settlement house which worked with the poor and working class in the city.  They decided to establish a similar effort in Chicago.  They founded Hull House in an immigrant neighborhood of Italian, Greek and Jewish workers.  Hull House grew to become a complex of facilities that offered kindergarten, day care, lectures and cultural programs, and an important space for women trade unionists to hold meetings. The women of Hull house became oneof the leading proponents for workplace safety in the nation, pushing for laws and reforms to help workers.   During the 1894 Pullman workers strike, Jane Addams visited the community and had meals with the women workers.   She was able to convince the workers’ strike committee to agree to sit down to arbitration, but the Pullman company officials staunchly refused to negotiate. The refusal of the company to bargain, and the rising anger of the workers was an eye-opener for Jane.   Later she reflected, “During all those dark days of the Pullman strike, the growth of class bitterness was most obvious.” Before the strike, she wrote, “there had been nothing in my experience [that had]reveal[ed] that distinct cleavage of society which a general strike at least momentarily affords.”  In 1931 Jane Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for her life-long advocacy for working class women and children and her strong stand for peace during World War I.